Threats by the Taliban and local warlords (see below) aren't the only problem Afghan voters are facing in the run-up to this year's vote.

Although campaigning may have come to an end, election banners and placards still dot the streets and buildings across Kapisa and Parwan, two northeastern provinces.

In their search for the most prominent places to advertise their candidates, some overzealous election activists took their campaigning a step too far.

Muhammad Yunus, deputy head of the Parwan traffic police, says campaign posters have been affixed to the unlikeliest of places -- over traffic lights or covering up bus timetables in the provincial capital, Charikar.

"We had to remove a poster glued over the main traffic light in the city's central junction," Yunus says. "Someone apparently decided it was the most visible place to put a poster."

A local resident complains that he spent a weekend painting the walls of his house in downtown Charikar, only to wake up the next morning to find dozens of election posters plastered over his newly whitewashed walls.